Railway-track-reballasting apparatus



Oct. 20, 1925. 1.552908 P. URSINQ RAILWAY TRACK REBALLASTING APPARATUSFiled March 2, 1925 I 3 Sheets-Shoot 1 Oct. 20, 1925 I P. URSINO RAILWAYTRACK REBALLASTING APPARATUS" Filed March 2, 1925 3 Sheets-Shoot 2 Oct.20, 1 925.

P. URSINO RAILWAY TRACK REBALLASTING APPARATUS Filed March- 2, 1925 3Shasta-Shut 5 ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 20, 1925.

r orrlcs PASQUALE UBSINO, F SEATTLE, WASHINGI'QN.

nmwar-cz anmtms'nne are 1:.

A mauoa filed March a, 1925. semi at. 212,551.

To all whom it may conaem:

Be it known that I, PASQUALE Unsmo, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Seattle, in the county of Kingand State of l/Vashington, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Railway- Track-Reballasting Apfparatus, of which thefollowing is a speci cation.

This invention relates to apparatus for removing from a railway trackballast and separating foreign substances therefrom to affordreconditioned ballast tor reballasting purposes.

Hitherto such operations have been performed by manual labor, anexpensive undertaking requiring considerable time.

The object of the present invention is to provide apparatus wherebytrack reballast- 1 ing may be performed in a more rapid and eficientmanner.

The invention consists in the novel construction, adaptation andcombination of parts hereinafter described with reference to theaccompanying drawings showing apparatus now preferred b me, and finallypointed out in the appen ed claims 1 In such drawings,

Figure l is a view of an embodiment of the invention taken substantiallyon broken lines 1-'-1 of Fig. 2, illustrating the same partly in planand partly in horizontal section. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal verticalsection of the apparatus, parts being omitted. Fig 3 is a view partly inelevation and partly in transverse vertical section substantially onplane 33 of Fig. 2, illustrating the ballast conveying devices and theelevators in their operating sitions. Fig. 4 is a fragmentary section onine 3-3 show ing the ballast conveyin elevators in their relative ycontracted positions. Fig.5 is a vertical transverse section on line 5--5 of Fig. 2

In said drawings, the reference numeral I 10 designates the platform ofa railway car supported upon wheels 11 located under the rear portion ofthe platform and mounted to travel upon the track rails 12.

' These track rails are spiked or otherwise rigidly secured to ties 13which seat upon a bed i l ofballast, composed of broken rock or anequivalent, the ballast being also employed between the ties in a mownmanner. The Purpose of the present invention,

till

devices and the more particularly, is to remove the ballast from.between the track ties and above a plane, such as i lat or slightlybelow the under surfaces of the ties when in place.

As illustrated there is secured to the underside of the structure of theplatform, in

front of the foremost of the car wheels 11,

guides 16 for bracket beams 17 which are movable transversely of the caras by means of manually o erated screws 18 carried by the respectivecams engaging in internally screw threaded blocks 19 secured to therespective guides.

There are two or more of said bracket beams for each side of the car,those for one side of the latter and the guides therefor are, forclearness, omitted from Fig. 2.

To the outer end of each of said beams is rigidly secured a guide 20 fora vertically movable bar 21. The lower ends of a pair of bars 21 at eachside of the car are 'connected to a rigid frame 22 disposedlongitudinally of the car.

The frames 22 are adjustably movable together with the guiding bars 21therefor by any suitable means, that shown comprising verticallydisposed screws 23 taking in internally threaded boxes 24: secured tothe. beams 17, the lower ends of the respective screws being connectedagainst axial movement to the associated frame 22 as by means of stirrupboxes 26 of known construction.

As illustrated, the screws 18 are rotatable by means of crank handles 18to impart lateral adjustments to the respective frames 22, and. thescrews 23 areprovided with crank handles 23 to impart verticaladjustment to said frames. Secured to the forward. member 27 arrangedwhen located as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, to dislodge the ballast frompaths of inclined elevators, one at each side of the car. Each of theseelevators consists of an endless chain or chains 28 carrying buckets 28the lower and upper ends of such chain elevators pass about sprocketwheels 29 and 30, respectively. I

The upper sprocket wheels are mounted upon the outer ends "of horizontalshafts 31, one for each wheel, the inner ends of said shafts extend intoand are splined to an annular coupling shaft 32. The shafts end of eachframe 22 is a plowthe ends of the ties outwardly into the 31 and 32arejournaled in bearing boxes sprocket wheel 40, on the coupling shaft32,

and a sprocket wheel 41 of a motor 42 carried upon the car platform 10.

The motor 42 is preferably operated by electricity the current foractuating the motor being supplied from any suitable source or reservoir(not shown) of electricity.

The sprocket wheel 29 at the lower end of an elevator is mounted upon ashaft 43 in a journal box 44 secured to the underside of the respectiveframe 22. The shaft 43 has mounted thereon a spur pinion 45 (Fig. 1)constituting the prime mover of a train of gears 46 of a series ofshafts 47 which are also journaled in boxes 48 provided upon theunderside of a frame 22in front of the elevator driven shaft 43 orbetween the latter and the associated plow.

The shafts 47 carried by each frame 22 are arranged with respect theretoin about the angular relation in which they are represented in Fig. 1.Integral with said shafts and protruding from the respective frametoward ,the center of the track is a system of alternating rollers 49and screw conveyors 50', respectively, of progressively increasingdiameters and lengths from front to rear of the systems.

The rollers 49, however, are of diameters such as to prevent theconveyors 50 from contacting with the ties when the latter are borneupon the rollers in the operation of the same as will presently bedescribed.

The helical configuration of each of the conveyors is such as to causethe ballast material to be moved outwardly from the center of the tracktoward and eventually into the path of the respective elevator.

Associated with each system of conveyors and rollers above referred tothere is provided to the rear thereof a series of rollers 51 havingaxles 52 which are journaled in bearing boxes 53 of the associated frame22.

The rollers 51 are, like the aforesaid rollers and conveyors, located atthe track side of the respective frames and may be arranged in inclinedrelations thereto or, as shown, perpendicularly and are of successivelydecreasing diameters from front to rear of the series.

The material raised by the elevator buckets 28 is deposited in a hopper54 having .of the tie ends.

at its bottom a grizzly or inclined screen I 55 of a mesh to permitsmall particles of the material, or refuse, to pass therethrough intowaste spouts 56 having hingedly connected thereto extensions 57 wherebythe refuse may be discharged at either or both sides of the track bed.

The larger pieces of the material deposited upon the screen 55 and whichwill not pass therethrough is 1 discharged by v gravitation into a spout58 extending from the hopper 54 either upon the track to the rear ofsaid car or, if desired, into a gon-' dola car to be transported toanother section of track for reballasting the same.

The car carrying the apparatus above described is desirably propelledupon the track by power means (not shown) provided upon the car andemployin two or more of the wheels 11 for traction purposes.

If desired, however, the car and the gondola in which the reconditionedballast material is received may be propelled by means of a suitablelocomotive.

When the car or train carrying the apparatus is enroute to or from theplace of operation, the apparatus is preferably reduced to its minimumwidth and the frames 22 and parts depending and movable therewith areelevated to position the 'roller and conveyor devices above the trackrails as shown in Fig. 4.

Arriving at the work, the ballast material occupying the wedge shapedsections at opposite ends of the ties are removedby means of picks andshovels for a short distance and the track structure including the railsand ties, is raised by means of the well known track jacks to have thelower surfaces of the ties elevated to about six or seven inches. Theballast is then, by hand operated shovels or other tools, removed fromunder the elevated ties to the plane 14 which latter serves as a floorin the ballast. excavation operatiom The car is then moved to positionthe frames 22 above the elevated portion of the track. The screws 18 andthe rack bars 35 are then actuated to cause the beams 17 and shafts 31to be moved laterally to carry the elevators, frames 22, etc., outwardlyuntil the inner extremities of all of the conveyors 50 and rollers 49-51are outside The screws 23 are then 120 actuated to lower said frames andthe parts connected therewith until said conveyors and rollers are belowthe heights of thebottoms of the previously elevated ties, wheretions,approximately, 1n which they are repthe track structure to be borne bresented in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, and the jacks above referredto areremovedpermitting the rollers 49 and 51 which are supporte upon theballast floor 14 The 'motor is now operated to impart motion through theshafts 32, 31 to drive the elevators which, in turn, act throu h themedium of the ears 45-46 torotatet e conveyors 50 and r0 ers 49. The caris propelled forward,- and .in the progressive travel of the conveyorsthe latter actito excavate the ballast material above the level of thefloor 14 and to transfer such excavated material to the elevatorswhereby such material is elevated into the hopper 54 to be screened andclassified as hereinbefore explained.

7 As the material above the floor 14 is removed, the progressive travelof the car carries the power'driven roller 49 ahead to efiect the raisinof thetrack which proceeds continuous y' as the work progresses. Theraising the track is permitted by the bending or flexing of the railswhich. return to their original sha es and positions subject to theaction 0 the rollers 51 which serve as what may be termed replacementrollers.

The function of the rollers with respect to the track is illustrated inFi 2, although for lack of space the de ectedor bendlng portion of thetrack rails are shown much shorter than would obtain in actual practice.By alternating the positions of the rollers 49 and conveyors 50, onewith the other, and driving the same by means of-a series ofintermeshing gears as shown,

' the conveyors are caused to turn in an of)- 1- posite rotary directionfrom that of the r0 ers.

While I have illustrated I and described apparatus now preferred by me'I do not appended claims.

What I claim, is,'

1. In apparatus for removing material from beneath a track, a. carmounted for travel upon said track, means carried by the car forexcavating said material, means to raise and lower respectively thetrack in front and to the rear of said excavating means during theprogressive travel of the car.

2. In apparatus for removing ballast from beneath a track, a car mountedto travel upon said track, conveyors carried by the ear and adapted tobe employed beneat said track for excavating material' therefrom, androllers also carried by the car for separating the material within thehopper. and delivering portions of the material to the respectiveoutlets.

4. In apparatus for removing ballast from beneath a track, a car mountedto travel upon the track, devices carried by the car for elevating thetrack structure during the progressive travel of the car, excavatingdevices for removing material from beneat raised portions of the track,a ho per provided upon the car and provi ed with a discharge spout, ascreen within the so hopper, elevators for conveying material from saidexcavating devices and the delivery of the same into said hopper abovethe screen, means to actuate the elevators, and means operated by saidelevators for actuating said devices.

5. In apparatus for removing ballast material from beneath a track, acar mounted to travel upon the track, frames connected to the 'car forvertical and lateral movements, means for effecting said movementsselectively to said frames, a plow provided at one end of each of saidframes, a series of track raising rollers and a series of materialexcavating devices rotatably connected to each of said frames, a recetacle provided upon said car, elevators or conveying excavated materialto said receptacle means for actuating said elevators, an means'operatively connecting the respective elevators with said rollers andexcavating devices for driving the same.

6. In apparatus for removing ballast material from beneath a track, acar mounted to travel upon the track, frames connected 105 to the carfor vertical and lateral movecle, means for actuating said elevators,and

means connecting the respective elevators with said devices to effectthe tur'mng' of the rollers in one rota direction andthe excavators inthe opposite rotary direction.

Signed at Seattle, Washmgton, this 15th day ,of January,

' PASQUALE

